What the iPhone 3G Is Still Missing

With its $199 price point and fast Internet connection, the iPhone 3G seems like it's got everything ... until you look a bit closer.

Steve Jobs has come and gone, and left us with another mountain of technological lust and evangelical desire, this time in the form of a new iPhone 3G. While its price and upgrades are enviable, here's what it still lacks. Come on, Cupertino!

1. A video camera!

The iPhone's old 2-megapixel camera had surprisingly good light sensitivity—if you kept it absolutely still and held your breath while the shutter snapped. But they didn't change a thing this time. We want to capture embarrassing footage on subways, edit it on our iMovie Mobile, and upload it all to YouTube when we emerge in broad daylight. And still no flash or zoom? At least give us better megapixels, for God's sake.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

2. More memory!

The iPhone's non-AT&T-horsecollared brother, the iPod Touch, already has 32 GB of memory, so we know it's possible. Yet the new iPhones still only go to 16 GB. The wait to at least 40 GB—a fair size to effectively replace the iPod completely—feels like slow torture. Many people would have gladly paid an extra hundred bucks for a handful more gigs. We would also mention SD-card slots, but come on, who are we kidding?

Most Popular

3. Solar Power!

Our "old" 2G iPhones run out of juice in a day. The new 3G beauties claim to have equal battery life, but we're not holding our breath. With no removable battery, it would be nice to see the patent Apple's filed for solar-charging LCD displays put to use quickly. Otherwise, honestly, how are we meant to simultaneously track ourselves via GPS while we conference call with four friends and download Super Monkey Ball after four hours of web surfing?

4. A Stun Gun!

Now that even more important personal information has been stuffed into an even more stealable package, why not add a little extra juice and give yourself a chance to numb your envious would-be assailants into submission? Or, at the least, iPhone users could go and take their entitled sense of mobile supremacy right to the Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile users in a flash mob of deadly proportions.

5. The Ability To Eliminate Poverty.

Because, despite only costing $199 now, the iPhone still sucked up to $599 (minus a $100 rebate) out of people's pockets just one short year ago. While the recession-friendly price is appreciated, consider the $30-per-month 3G access, the compulsive iTunes purchases, and the gotta-have-em-all App Store downloads as part of the hundreds of dollars of fun you'll also look forward to. If only the iPhone dispensed money and cured AIDS…alas, at least it plays sweet music.